Sadly, I remember the first serious domestic violence incident I attended as a 19-year-old Police Officer in my hometown of Kempsey on the NSW Mid North Coast back in 1990 as if it were only yesterday. Having come from a loving, supportive family, this first experience was something very foreign to me.
At first, the sight of the young woman lying on a blood-soaked lounge, both eyes swollen shut, bleeding from the nose and mouth didn’t register in my brain. It was as if she had been in a car accident, yet the reality was, these injuries had been inflicted by someone she loved and who supposedly loved her. He had already done the bolt over the back fence when we arrived. We’d catch up with him later that night. Sadly, this was the first of countless domestic violence assaults I saw in my 12 years in the Police.
Family and domestic violence in this country continue to be a scourge on our society. As we celebrate another International Women’s Day this week, it’s a time to reflect on where we as a nation stand when it comes to not only equality but also the available systems we have in place for the protection of women’s rights and liberties.
The current Federal Government’s National Prevention Plan is a commendable continuation and adaptation of the Coalition’s plan before it, which was itself built on the plan from successive governments prior to that. As each year passes and the statistics continue to roll in, there is increasing focus and funding allocated to the issue, and I commend successive governments on this recognition.
However, I believe we need to face the reality there has been nothing intrinsically revolutionary about each successive Prevention Plan. Subsequently, there has been no revolutionary shift in the data around rates of incidents. What has increased is the rate of cases being prosecuted in courts around the country, and that is certainly a positive shift as those endangered feel empowered to seek the supports that are increasingly available. But in terms of the key word, PREVENTION, there has been no paradigm shift.
As an example, on average over the past three years, the New South Wales Police received 1 call every 4 minutes in response to Domestic Violence incidents. In one particular township within my electorate, I have heard from police that DV response contributes up to 50% of their workload. In regional and rural areas, incidents of DV and subsequent court orders are significantly higher than their metro counterparts per capita. To illustrate this, in 2021, there were more than 2300 domestic violence orders granted on the Mid North Coast and Coffs Harbour areas, a rate of more than double that of Greater Sydney.
To make meaningful change, we have to change. We as an Australian society need to change, and it’s the role of Government to put systems in place to facilitate that shift in our national consciousness.
In my role as Assistant Shadow Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence and as the MP for a regional NSW electorate, I have spoken to countless individuals and agencies who span the pillars of the recent plans – from prevention to early intervention, response and recovery.
This is a role I take with the gravity it deserves, and if I have any chance of influencing positive progress, I need to be listening to all suggestions from those on the front lines around how to proceed and find the commonalities in order to identify a starting point.
The commonality I have found is this; Everyone I have consulted with recognises that funding is predominantly back end loaded, and without adequate resourcing and effective programs for prevention and early intervention, we will perpetually be the ambulance at the bottom of that cliff, spending infinite time and resources on the clean-up rather than providing the fence to protect potential victims from falling in the first place.
A key element that all consulted parties have identified is ongoing education from an early age. If it takes a village to raise a child, then it will also take that same village to make generational change on domestic violence. For long-term change, a systematic educational approach must be implemented. And that requires programs not just for one day a year but instilled into the curriculum from primary school all the way through to university. With this we need real cooperation of business, industry, sporting, and community groups to work along-side victims and families to affect tangible change.
These components need to change if we are to have any hope of driving down incident statistics.
I am committed to seeing this change to policy occur, and in working with individuals, organisations and parties who dedicate themselves to the pursuit of preventing violence against women. We owe it to our communities and our future generations.
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